Jim Holmes, Telerik
Time and time again over the last several years I’ve run in to individuals, teams, or organizations that are struggling or outright failing with test automation at the User Interface level. Some of these people are members of teams that are writing great systems. If they’re able to write great systems, where’s the disconnect with having so much difficulty around test automation? These issues aren’t isolated ones; rather, they’re much more common than many in our industry are willing to admit.
This paper and presentation focus on some of the main reasons for difficulties in good test automation: lack of understanding of fundamentals with the technologies, failure to recognize that automation efforts are software engineering efforts, and a failure to focus on high-value automation over low-value tasks. This paper is completely technology agnostic—these issues cut across all domains.
In this paper I will discuss ways to avoid these pitfalls, and ways to ensure your teams and organizations are able to identify and overcome these challenges. We’ll walk through the importance of approaching automation as a whole-team effort. You’ll learn to identify candidates for good automation and which task to avoid. You’ll also come away knowing why it’s critical to have a solid understanding of the technologies involved.
Finally, you’ll take away why it’s so critical to keep your team and organizations constantly assessing their efforts, and adjusting where needed – JUST LIKE GOOD SOFTWARE TEAMS DO.
Jim Holmes, 2012 Technical Paper, Abstract, Paper
